A case of unexplained exemption?

In March this year when J&K Legislative Assembly was in session, the Deputy Chief Minister Mr Surinder Chowdhary, who also holds the portfolio of the Mining Department, informed the Assembly that a penalty of Rs 80 lakhs had been imposed on a Haryana based construction company namely NKC Projects Pvt Ltd for unauthorized riverbed mining in Shaliganga stream in Basantwodder area of Khansahib in district Budgam district.

This matter came into limelight when Mr Saifudin Bhat Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Khansahib sought the attention of the House. MLA informed the house that heavy machinery like L&T Cranes, JCBs had been brought into the stream by the construction company (NKC) without any clearance from the Mining Department, Revenue Department, or Forest authorities. He further added that villagers from Basantwodder, Lanilabb, Draggar, and adjoining areas were protesting, yet no action had been taken against the company. While responding to MLA Khansahib, the Deputy Chief Minister stated that a penalty of Rs 80- lakhs was imposed on the company for this illegal work.

“The District Mineral Officer (DMO) Budgam has taken strict action against the NKC Projects Private Limited for unauthorized mining of boulders, gravel, and sand at the Shali Ganga stream around Lanilab-Basant Wooder in the Khansahib area of Budgam. He further added that action was taken after a video went viral on social media on March 2, 2025, which was later confirmed to be true by field officials when DMO Budgam deputed a team to the site to verify the claims. Upon investigation, it was confirmed that the company had engaged men and machinery for the unauthorized extraction of approximately 300 metric tons of Nallah Mukh without obtaining the necessary permits,” the Mining Minister/Deputy CM informed the House.

Rs 86,445 penalty amount recovered ?

As someone who has been campaigning against the illegal riverbed mining for the last many years I was very happy to hear the statement of the Deputy Chief Minister that too from the floor of the J&K Assembly. All the local newspapers along with national newspapers, new portals like Economic Times, Business Standard, The Print, and PTI carried this news. After some months I got curious to know whether this amount was recovered or not? I sought the details under the Right to Information Act – RTI which is my favourite tool to obtain the information and about which I have done a lot of advocacy in the past.

On 8^th August 2025 I filed an application under RTI Act 2005 via an online portal in the J&K Mining Department. I wanted to know how much was actually recovered as penalty money? On 16^th September 2025, I was shocked to know that mere Rs 86,445 had been recovered as penalty money? The information along with receipt of the payment was provided to this author by the District Mineral Officer-DMO Budgam through an official communication number: DMO/BUG/DGM/F-23/1749-50 Dated: 16.09.2025.

It is now more than a week since the video on this issue is in public domain on various social media platforms but neither the Deputy Chief Minister nor any officer of Geology & Mining Department is responding?

Background of the case

Illegal Riverbed Mining in Shaliganga has already been banned by Hon’ble National Green Tribunal-NGT in September 2022. This author had challenged the Environmental Clearance-EC given to M/S NKC Projects Pvt Ltd in 2022 by filing an appeal in the NGT against J&K Environmental Impact Assessment Authority-JKIA. The JKEIAA had initially rejected the EC but within a month they gave the Environmental Clearance -EC on the basis of the District Survey Report -DSR submitted by the Mining Department & clearance from J&K Empo while no Replenishment Study had been done. The company was involved in large scale illegal mining in Shaliganga near Panzan village of Budgam by using heavy machinery which was also violating the EC guidelines of JKEIAA. The NGT first stayed the work in March 2022 and finally pronounced a detailed judgement on 28th September 2022. The company challenged that order before Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and after more that 2 ½ years the judgement came in my favour https://indiankanoon.org/doc/135143811/ recently

The Supreme Court upheld the judgement of National Green Tribunal-NGT pronounced in 2022. During these 2 ½ years NKC company didn’t go ahead with the illegal work in Shaliganga near Panzan village, but they managed to go to Sail & Kangripora villages of Beerwah Beerwah- 30 kms west of Shaliganga where the looted Sukhnag river for more than 2 years ( October 2022- December 26^th 2024)? Interestingly no e-auction was done for Sukhnag nor was any Environmental Clearance obtained by NKC Projects Pvt Ltd from JKEIAA. Riverbed mining is prohibited in Sukhnag as it happens to be designated trout Fish stream, but who cares ? Even the Fisheries Department failed to act against this company for two long years & I had to fight these people in this case as well by seeking NGTs intervention.

The NGT in October 2024 constituted a team of officers to visit the site. The sand and boulder mining in Sukhang was halted after a team from New Delhi consisting of senior officers of Environment Ministry-MoEFCC , Central Pollution Control Board- CPCB visited the site on December 26^th 2024. Feeling frustrated the NKC group again went to loot Shaliganga but in the upstream area in Basant Wodder & Draggar villages of Raithan Forest range in Budgam around January end 2025.

This company has been constructing Srinagar Semi Ring Road project for the last 3 years and riverbed material & clay from Karewas worth billions has been looted by them which caused huge loss to state exchequer and environment both? When there was lot of hue and cry from local population and this author as well through social media, the local MLA Mr Saifudin Bhat on March 8^th 2025 raised this issue in J&K Assembly, but in spite of assurances that Rs 80 lakhs penalty has been imposed on NKC Projects Pvt Ltd , the reality was something different ?

It is really shocking that in spite of assurances given by the Deputy Chief Minister on the floor of the house that a company involved in illegal mining was penalized, the penalty money was recovered after more than three months on July 15^th 2025 & shockingly the company was given such a huge discount and people were kept uninformed? Neither any clarification was issued by the Mining Department nor was the J & K Assembly updated about this development?

Conclusion

How can the Govt claim to be transparent and accountable to people when it is not accountable to the state legislature? Our elected Govt claims that it has no powers in the UT set-up but who stopped them from recovering Rs 80 lakhs penalty from the erring construction company which caused plunder and loot in our rivers without any accountability?

Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat is an Acumen Fellow and Chairman J&K RTI Movement